However, in a decision delivered on March 4, the appellate court said that none of her proposed grounds of appeal had any merit.

Cadet had questioned the sufficiency of the judge’s summation of causation and said the case should have been withdrawn from the jury at the close of the prosecution’s case due to insufficient evidence.

According to the evidence, the convict photographed his mother’s body with his cell phone after he found her lifeless on her bedroom floor on February 4, before he alerted his siblings about her death.

Gynecologist Dr. Austin Davis, a family friend, examined the body and said that Ms. Butler had died of natural causes.

However, forensic pathologist Dr. Caryn Sands ruled the death a homicide.

The pathologist observed blunt force trauma to Ms. Butler’s head, neck and intestines during the post mortem and listed the cause of death as possible asphyxia.